Haru aki ni omoi midarete wakikanetsu toki ni tsuketsutsu utsuru kokoro wa - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春秋に思ひ乱れて分きかねつ
時につけつつ移る心は

Roma-ji: Haru aki ni omoi midarete wakikanetsu toki ni tsuketsutsu utsuru kokoro wa
English Translation: Spring and autumn both
leave my thoughts in disarray;
I cannot choose between,
for with each turning season
so too does my heart turn.
Meaning: Torn between spring and autumn, I cannot tell which is the better, for my heart shifts with every season as it comes.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems II 509

Headnote: "Composed and presented when, at a certain place, someone of high rank asked which was superior, spring or autumn"
Asked which was superior, spring or autumn, the poet answers that he cannot decide, for his heart shifts with each season. Rather than choosing one, he simply offers up his own heart, drawn to both spring and autumn. The honorifics in the headnote, "deigned to ask" and "presented," show that he composed it in answer to a question from someone of high rank.
This book is the second of the miscellaneous books. From this opening poem, poems weighing spring against autumn continue in the next poems, 510 and 511, followed by the bush warbler against the cuckoo in 512 and the exchange of questions from 513 to 523, so that poems of question and answer follow one upon another. Where this opening poem answers a question from someone of high rank, the closing poem, 575, also answers the words of Retired Emperor En'yū, so the beginning and end of the book answer each other as poems of reply.
Debating the merits of spring and autumn is an old theme, already seen in a poem by Princess Nukata in the Man'yōshū.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "haru aki ni," means "between spring and autumn," taking up the question in the headnote. The next poems, 510 and 511, likewise set autumn and spring, and spring and autumn, side by side.
Second line, "omoi midarete," means "my thoughts thrown into disarray."
Third line, "wakikanetsu," means "I could not tell them apart," with "kane" adding the sense of inability and "tsu" the perfective auxiliary. The poem breaks after this third line, and the lower verse gives the reason in inverted order.
Fourth line, "toki ni tsuketsutsu," means "according to each season," with "tsutsu" expressing repetition. It shares the word "toki" with the fourth line of the next poem, 510, "hana miru toki wa."
Final line, "utsuru kokoro wa," means "my heart that shifts," giving the reason in inverted order: the heart changes as the seasons change, and the line trails off on "wa," leaving a lingering echo.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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